Breathing for Life Trial

10/12/2025

From 10 December 2025 to 31 January 2026, a temporary PBS Continued Dispensing Emergency Measure has been put in place to support people affected by the bushfire disaster in six Local Government Areas in New South Wales to continue to access their PBS subsidised medicines.

This means that under specific circumstances, pharmacists can dispense asthma medicines without a doctor's prescription.

The NSW Government’s Natural Disaster Declaration applies to the LGAs of:
➡️Central Coast
➡️Mid Coast
➡️Upper Hunter
➡️Muswellbrook
➡️Warrumbungle
➡️Dubbo

When its smokey, stay indoors to protect your lungs. Use your air conditioner on recirculation mode or an air purifier inside your home. Take your preventer every day as prescribed and always have your asthma medicine close by. If you wheeze, cough or have trouble breathing, follow your written Asthma Action Plan. Call the doctor or 000 (triple zero) if your asthma doesn't get better.

To help prepare for extreme weather and bushfire season, call our FREE 1800 ASTHMA (1800 278 462) service and speak with an Asthma Educator. https://buff.ly/EyqBDx3

02/12/2025

Congratulations to our team member Nadine, who was successful in receiving a Franklin Women's Carer's Scholarship. We are excited to see where your research career takes you Nadine!

Social enterprise Franklin Women is pleased to announce the round 2, 2025 recipients of its innovative Carer’s Scholarship

28/11/2025

The 1800 ASTHMA service is closed next Monday 1st December and Tuesday 2nd December 9am - 5pm (all states except WA and NT). The service will reopen on Wednesday at 9am.

25/11/2025

We love having fun at work, and having such a great team where we are not only colleagues, but also friends, really is where the fun comes into the every day!

When those you work with make you smile, that's where the magic (and great research) happens☺️

24/11/2025

We were recently invited to contribute to this review for the journal 'Allergy'!

Free Access: Asthma in Pregnancy. Eve Denton, Megan E. Jensen, Bronwyn K. Brew, Mark Hew, Vanessa E. Murphy

Read the article here: doi.org/10.1111/all.70087

With over 200 references and four figures, this review article provides an overview of the changes in the respiratory system during pregnancy, comorbidities and treatment. It includes a discussion on prevalence, hormone and physical changes in the respiratory physiology, effect on inflammatory pathways, asthma exacerbations, comorbidities, perinatal and child health outcomes, and treatment options.


Read more articles published in on here: journalallergy.com/Asthma-Lower-Airways

05/11/2025

The Asthma and Pregnancy Research Team kicking some major goals - 3 out of 5 pilot grants awarded by the Hunter Children's Research Foundation - HCRF were given to our team last Thursday 30 October!

Professor Vanessa Murphy for the project 'The Role of the Infant Microbiome in Asthma and Allergy Development Among Children at High Risk' - studying samples provided by our incredible BLT babies and their parents.

Dr Bronwyn Brew for the project 'Tracking Severe Wheeze from Infancy to Asthma in Childhood' - building on the solid foundation of BLT research.

Dr Gabriela Martins Costa Gomes for the infant lung function follow up study - for our new TTAP study cohort to develop new ways of predicting bronchiolitis.

Congratulations to the entire team!

03/11/2025

Some new findings from BLT published in the journal Allergy

Open access: Markers in Infants of Mothers With Asthma and Associations With Respiratory Outcomes. First author: Carla Rebeca Da Silva Sena; corresponding author: Urs Frey

Read the article here: doi.org/10.1111/all.70044


In the Basel-Bern Infant Lung Development cohort (BILD) and Basel-Bern Infant Lung Development cohort (BLT) cohorts, the authors compared cord blood proteins in infants of mothers with and without during pregnancy. Groups showed different protein levels. These markers were associated with postnatal lung function, bronchiolitis hospitalization, and asthma. Additionally, p62 was inversely associated with minute ventilation, matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) inversely with functional residual capacity and bronchiolitis/asthma risk, while IFN-γ and MMP-9 was positively associated with lung clearance index, highlighting distinct protein–lung function and disease associations.



Read more articles published in on here: journalallergy.com/Asthma-Lower-Airways

23/10/2025

Come and chat to us about research! We’ll be here with HMRI till 10am

22/10/2025

The weather is heating up! 🔆 Large parts of NSW will have high temperatures and strong winds today, ideal conditions for bushfires to start unfortunately.
🔥Bushfire smoke impacts our health, and people with respiratory conditions, the elderly and children are particularly at risk.
To help prepare for the warmer months, check out our Infographics from the Severe Asthma toolkit, which were developed in association with - they contain helpful information regarding the health impacts of bushfire smoke, vulnerable populations and how to reduce risk.
👉https://toolkit.severeasthma.org.au/resources/infographics/

17/10/2025

Most people with asthma know about taking oral steroids after an asthma attack, but what about the long-term risks?
Join our free live class with experts to learn how to prevent asthma attacks before they happen and get answers to your questions. https://buff.ly/4h84AmT

14/10/2025